


Mafia

by kathyshadow



Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-15 23:13:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10559324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathyshadow/pseuds/kathyshadow
Summary: The group plays the party game Mafia in the Verres' basement. Was Tedd's laboratory really the best choice for this?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in the current official continuity as of 7 April 2017, sometime between Elliot and Ashley's first date and the future planned first date of Sarah and Sam. According to EGS Wiki that puts it during the week of January 13, Year 2.
> 
> Many thanks to the contributors of the EGS Wiki; there is no way I could have checked every continuity question so quickly otherwise. In particular, the relationships sections of each character page was invaluable. Any mistake are my own (please let me know!)
> 
> This is my first work of fan fiction so any feedback would be truly helpful!

It had been a rush but together Tedd, Grace, and Sarah had managed to get Tedd's lab reasonably tidy, and the foldable table set up, before everyone arrived. The doorbell rang just as Sarah was locking up the final cabinet of electronics; Grace shot up the stairs, followed by Tedd.

Sarah chuckled to herself. Grace was so cute. It was the first time the whole group had been over since her birthday party and she was so excited to be hosting them again, albeit at short notice.

Mr. Verres got to the door before any of them. The group of six friends stood at the door, fronted by Justin and Susan. It was pouring with rain.

"Hello, Mr. Verres," Justin said. "Thank you for letting us come over."

"Come on in," Tedd's father replied. The gang burst through the door and starting stripping out of their wet coats before moving into the kitchen.

"I still can't believe Tensaided shafted us for a frigging _Twilight_ convention," Susan fumed, wringing out her hair into the kitchen sink. "Oops, sorry for my language."

"I think under the circumstance it is valid," Edward Verres agreed.

"If it weren't for all the other party's fans around, I think we would've seen some hammer action" Elliot smiled.

"I could've taken them all."

"Tensaided might have had something to say about it."

"I could've taken him out too."

"Hammer action?" asked the girl who had her arm linked with Elliot's.

"I'll explain later," Elliot said.

"You must be Ashley," Sarah surmised. "Hi!"

"Uh oh!" Ellen interjected, "Watch out! Crazy ex alert!"

"Ellen! Behave!" Nanase thwacked Ellen's arm. Ellen continued grinning goonishly.

Ashley had turned bright red. Sarah stifled a laugh. Only Ellen could get away with such a provocative statement.

"Don't worry," she smiled at Ashley, slightly blushing herself, "I won't throw any sofas at you."

"Guys!" Elliot exclaimed. "You promised you'd behave if I brought Ashley!"

"It's fine," Ashley smiled shyly. "I'd hate people not to be themselves around me. Oh, a squirrel."

Grace had transformed into her squirrel form and was running up Ellen's side. Ellen laughed. "Stop that, it tickles!"

Grace reached Ellen's shoulder. "Squeak."

"Grace says hello," Tedd deadpanned.

Squirrel Grace held out a front paw.

"Pleased to meet you...?" Ashley held a finger out to Grace who shook it enthusiastically.

"Honestly if you can deal with that you can deal with anything around here," Elliot reassured his girlfriend, who did look a little pale.

"Grace is now going to go upstairs before she changes back to human form," Mr. Verres said, raising an eyebrow. "Where she'll put on some clothes."

"Squeak!"

"I'll bring up your clothes," Sarah said, picking up the clothes from the floor and running after Grace.

Just then Edward Verres' phone rang. He answered it.

"Yes? Yes. A WHAT? To a WHAT?! Yes, okay. Bye." He turned to the group. "Something urgent has come up at work," he told everyone. "Can I trust you not to wreck the place while I'm gone?"

"Honestly Dad, we're going to be in the basement all night. It'll be me that's worried about things getting broken."

"Well, you're all adults, I suppose. But no drinking!"

"Dad!"

"That reminds me though," he continued. "I did get in another crate of that soft drink I can't pronounce." He opened the cupboard next to the sink and pulled out the top of a stack of cardboard palettes containing cans of soda. "See," he chastised his son, "I do try to make an effort."

Justin lifted up the drinks. "And I have some cake in my bag! Lead the way then, Tedd."

 

***

 

"What did you transform for, anyway?" Sarah asked Grace while she was getting dressed upstairs. Grace had assumed her regular human form.

"Oh...", Grace looked away sheepishly. "Well, this will seem strange, but ... I got shy."

"Does your squirrel form make you more outgoing?"

"No, but... I suppose it's easier to be outgoing when you have a mask to hide behind."

"Ah, the story of every superhero."

"Do you think that's how Elliot managed to ask out Ashley?"

"I bet she asked him out instead," Sarah chuckled. "I don't think even being Cheerleadra would give Elliot enough confidence to ask a girl out."


	2. Chapter 2

Sarah and Grace entered the lab as Justin was explaining the rules to the group. Everyone was sat around the folding table, and someone had dealt out the soda and cake.

The two girls took the two remaining empty chairs; Grace at one end of the table next to Justin, and Sarah at the other end next to Nanase. She realised she was also opposite Ashley. Hopefully that wouldn't be too awkward....

"Before we begin we'll all take a card and keep it secret from everyone else," Justin was saying. "A third of the pack are Mafia cards, so two or three of us will be Mafia, and the rest will be civilians. Then we'll all close our eyes, the mafia will wake up and reveal themselves to each other during the "night", and then during the day everyone has to work out who might be one of the Mafia. The day ends when the group votes to lynch a particular person. Then during the next night, the Mafia will signal who to kill."

"Oh, I know this game," Ashley said. "In my family we call it Werewolf, and during each night the people would transform into werewolves rather than Mafia."

"Wow, your family can transform into wolves?" Grace gasped.

"Uh, no, just make-believe for the game."

"Oh. Okay," Grace sounded disappointed.

"Susan has agreed to be the moderator," Justin continued. "So she'll tell us who the victim was after each night."

"Aw Susan," Nanase said, putting down her drink. "Is that okay? You don't get to participate."

"Oh, yes, it's good," Susan replied. "I'm looking forward to observing everyone's behaviour, knowing who the Mafia are."

"Anyway, the day/night cycle repeats until either all the civilians are dead or all the Mafia are dead," Justin finished.

"I've got the games console set up for the people who get killed off," Tedd added.

"It's not linked to the TF gun this time, I hope?" Elliot shot a glare at Tedd.

"That was one time! And I think it's good to play as the correct gender for the character."

"Link's not a girl!" Elliot spluttered.

Tedd sipped his soda nonchalantly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Susan rolled her eyes and dealt out the cards ("Hearts means you're a civilian, Spades mean you're Mafia"), leaving the spares in the middle of the table. She watched everyone peek at their individual cards before putting them face-down on the table.

"Okay, eyes closed. It's now nighttime." Susan took her phone from a pocket and placed it on the table, and it started playing some nighttime cricket chirping sounds.

"Now, Mafia wake up, and see who your fellow mafiosi are."

Ellen and Grace opened their eyes. Ellen had a wide, predatory grin. Grace looked, frankly, terrified.

"There's no killing on the first night, so, Mafia close your eyes... and in the interests of having good, logical deductions I'm going to tell you that there are two mafiosi in play. Now, everyone wake up." Susan turned off the night audio.

Everyone looked around, gauging their peers' reactions.

"Tedd, have you changed gender?" Elliot suddenly noticed.

"What?" Tedd replied, surprised. He looked the same to Susan. "Oh, so I have."

"Tedd can do it too?!" Ashley stammered. Susan noticed she was blushing.

"At any rate, it's very suspicious" Elliot said.

"Suspicious how?! I change gender plenty of times," Tess replied. "Though admittedly I usually do it deliberately. Interesting."

"So Elliot thinks Tedd's Mafia, eh?" Ellen interjected. "Or is he just trying to take the spotlight off himself?"

"Maybe you're trying to take the spotlight off yourself," Justin suggested.

Susan was still trying to work out how to tell which gender Tedd/Tess was, but stopped to admire Justin's deduction.

"What do you think, Grace?" Ellen asked. Grace's poker face was terrible, Susan noted. Grace was clearly scrambling to figure out what to say when Nanase interjected.

"Why would you ask Grace first?" Nanase raised an eyebrow.

"Okay fine, who do _you_ think it is?"

"I don't know but I think Sarah's been very quiet."

"I-- what?" Sarah squeaked. "I'm _always_ very quiet!"

"Plus you could do that time stop thing," Tess said. "You probably know who everyone is already."

"Tedd! I'd never use my powers to cheat!" Sarah gasped, shocked. "And I think you know that. I move to lynch Tedd!"

"Tess."

"No, he's changed back again," Elliot corrected Ellen.

"I think I saw it happen this time!" Ashley muttered gleefully. So _that's_ what Ashley sees in Elliot, Susan mused.

"So Sarah has just nominated Tedd," Susan announced. "Everyone now votes whether or not to lynch Tedd; if they do, Tedd is removed and we go to night time; if not the day continues until someone is lynched."

"Surely with Susan moderating, the nominee should be hammered," Ellen suggested.

"Okay fine, I'll use the hammers," Susan sighed, and reached for her drink.

"What _are_ the hammers?" Ashley asked again.

"Looks like you're about to find out," Elliot said.

"All for lynch-- hammering Tedd?"

Ellen, Elliot, Grace, Justin, and Sarah all voted for Tedd.

"Oh no fair!" Tedd protested.

Susan closed her eyes. It seemed a shame to have to hammer Tedd (and, wow, if she'd told her past self that a year ago...) especially after he helped out so much with the fairy dolls -- action figures -- and watch --

*KRAK-A-VWM*

"What, you're going to fairy me to death?" laughed Tedd.

Susan opened her eyes again. Rather than her hammer she seemed to have summoned little Suze.

"That's... not what I meant to do," Susan scratched her head. Suze flew across the table, snatching a drink straw on the way, and landed on Tedd's head, where she began hitting him with the straw as if it were a hammer.

"Hey, cut it out! Shoo!" Tedd batted at Suze with his hand, laughing.

"That. Is. Adorable." Ashley declared. Suze flew over to Ashley, who tickled the doll. Susan quickly turned off tactile feedback before she started giggling herself.

"Well, that's not what I had planned but okay Tedd, reveal your card and I'm afraid you can no longer speak in this game."

Tedd flipped his card over. The group groaned when they saw he was a civilian. "Told you!" he called. "Now, I hear Mario Kart calling."

Tedd got up, in good spirits, and flopped down onto the sofa in front of the TV.

Suze flew over to the middle of the table and tugged at the top of the surplus pile of playing cards. She dragged the top one to Grace and Justin' end of the table, and sat at the head, facing Susan and looking hopeful.

"Aw, that's so cute, Susan," Grace said. "She wants to play too!"

Susan sighed. "She can't. She'll give the game away. And we've already started."

"We can vote to include her! Everyone who--"

"NoIdon'twanteverybodyanalysingme!" Susan blurted out, and Suze disappeared with a loud pop.

Everyone looked around uncomfortably.

"Sorry, Susan!" Grace whimpered. "I didn't--"

Susan took a deep breath, and forced a smile. "It's okay, Grace. I'm sorry I snapped."

She took a sip of her drink to steady her voice, deciding to make light of the situation.

"I could summon Suze again to give you a hug?"

That elicited a smile out of Grace. She raised an eyebrow playfully. "Maybe later."

"Okay, night time again, everybody sleep," Susan declared, keen for everyone to shut their eyes to hide her blush. She turned back on the night time sounds to mask any noise of movements, and announced, "Mafia, wake up."

Sarah kept her eyes closed, of course. She felt bad that she'd nominated Tedd after what was in retrospect probably just a good-natured joke. She'd have to do something special to make it up to him later. If Elliot hadn't called him on his gender switch she doubted anybody else would have voted for him, either. Poor Tedd, he was so preoccupied with his assumption that he'd have to choose his permanent gender if magic was going to change. While Sarah couldn't claim to be completely happy with how she looked -- and who could? -- she'd realised how lucky she was that at least she was certain she was female. Grace had said she made a cute boy... [but well,] she thought, [let's just say I want to lose my virginity with my preferred parts first...]

She shook her head. Boy, the Mafia were taking their time choosing who to knock off. It was probably difficult without being able to speak. They'd probably pick someone who'd cast suspicion on one of them the previous round, so she was probably safe.

It really was taking a long time.

Sarah realised that the night audio had stopped. In fact, the room was silent.

"Wow, you could hear a pin drop here," she quipped. "Susan, put the crickets back on."

No response.

"Susan?"

"Anybody?"

She shouldn't open her eyes; it'd be cheating. Everyone else was just waiting patiently.

In complete silence.

[Okay I'll open my eyes. But I'll turn around to look at Tedd in front of the TV so I don't accidentally cheat.]

Sarah turned around and opened her eyes. Tedd was there all right, headphones on, playing his game, but he was motionless. Suddenly everything made sense. She'd activated her new time-freeze spell!

The temptation to turn around and see who had their eyes open was strong, but Sarah didn't want to spoil the game, so she closed her eyes again and deactivated the spell.

***

"Now, Mafia close their eyes.... and everybody wake up.

"Ashley, I'm sorry to say the Mafia killed you during the night."

"Ah rats!" Ashley cursed, good naturedly. "But I can watch the night cycle from now on, right?"

"That's right, but you can't say anything."

"Awesome!"

"Ashley and I were the only ones that didn't vote for Tedd," Nanase noted. "A revenge killing! Aaand I suppose by saying that, I've marked myself as the next victim."

"So the Mafia could be any of us that voted to eliminate Tedd?" Elliot said.

"I'd say it's most likely to be the person who nominated innocent Tedd in the first place," Justin mused.

"So... Sarah?" Grace asked.

"Or the person who originally thought he was acting suspicious," Ellen looked at Elliot, and squinted accusingly at him.

"That's the SECOND time you've accused me now, Ellen! If I were you I'd stop being _so_ obvious."

"You _were_ me, as it happens. But you're the one being obvious."

"There are two Mafia and four civilians left," Grace said slowly. "That's a one third chance of getting a mafioso if we choose someone at random."

"Okay, let's roll a dice," Ellen said.

"A die," Justin corrected her, and produced one from a pocket. "Let's at least use this as a starting point. I'll be Number 1 and we can go around clockwise from me, so Nanase is 2, Sarah 3, Ellen 4, Elliot 5 and Grace 6."

He threw the dice. "Oh crap, it's me."

Everyone looked at him.

"Well, since I have to say it, I'm not Mafia."

"That's EXACTLY what a Mafia WOULD say." Ellen pointed theatrically.

Justin rolled his eyes. "I can't tell if you're being genuinely accusatory or if you're doing it to cover up some kind of Mafia...ness."

"I know a trick that always works when I'm trying to find out if Ellen is lying," Elliot said. He leaned across Grace and stared at Justin squarely in the eyes. "Good old blinking competition."

Justin met Elliot's eyes, but quickly began to blush and looked away.

"Hah!" Elliot cried. "Easy win! He's totally Mafia."

"Uh, Elliot..." started Nanase. Justin shot her a cautioning look.

"What?"

"Uh... your stares are pretty intense. I might not read too much into that."

"Well, then who do you think is Mafia, Nanase?"

"I think... I think you two are just arguing because you're siblings. That leaves Grace, Justin, and Sarah. And I think Justin's being honest, so I guess I think it's Grace and Sarah."

"Lies!" Grace exclaimed. "Definitely lies!" She paused. "Though Sarah might be it?" She sank into her chair shyly.

There was no fooling anybody after that display. Sarah felt sorry for Grace but was actually rather relieved that Grace was such a bad actor/liar. Grace's earnestness and unwillingness to deceive anybody were really special qualities.

Grace was voted out unanimously. Susan noticed that Ellen waited fractionally before raising her hand; weighing up whether she was going to accidentally out herself if she was the only vote against her fellow mafioso, but nobody else seemed to notice.

"Sorry Grace. It's lynching time. So let's try thi--"

*VWWWM*

"That's not a hammer, that's a crowbar!"

Susan was indeed wielding a crowbar rather than her hammer. "Oh for goodness sake! This is from my magic marked chest. I hadn't even finished considering my hammer spell yet."

"You must be too eager to get the hammer."

"What's with the hammers?!"


	3. Chapter 3

Nighttime.

"Okay, Mafia, open your eyes."

It was just Ellen left, of course, though Ashley was also watching, and grinned when she saw who the remaining mafioso was. Ellen thought for a moment, and then pointed at Justin.

Makes sense, Susan thought. Nanase had Elliot and Ellen pegged as innocent so there was no point killing them off. Sarah was currently being scapegoated thanks to Grace, and Justin had played the game before so was probably the biggest threat, deduction-wise.

"Okay, Mafia close your eyes." Susan fiddled with her phone, turning off the audio again.

"And everyone wake up."

"Holy f**k!" Ashley gasped, drawing Susan's attention away from her phone. Everyone else also turned to look at her.

"Sorry," she caught herself. "I'm not supposed to say anything."

But everyone could follow her gaze, anyway.

In fairness to Ashley, Sarah thought, everyone probably would have noticed what she'd seen anyway.

Ellen had clone morphed into Justin.

Suddenly all eyes were on Ellen. "What?" she said, and then heard her voice, and looked down at herself. "Oh. Oh crap."

"Hah!" Nanase laughed. "Either you accidentally pointed at and zapped someone at random during the night, or you accidentally zapped Justin specifically when you were pointing at him because you are the mafia!"

Justin stood up and walked around the table to Ellen. "Wow," he said. "I don't think I've seen myself from this angle before." He squatted down. "Or this angle." He stood up again, slightly to the right. "Or---"

"Yes we get it," Ellen groaned. "I don't use this on humans very often. I hope it doesn't take long for it to wear off."

Nanase snorted in her laughter. "Oh now look what you made me do," she giggled.

"I hope it wears off before we get back to mine tonight," Nanase winked at her. "Justin's not quite my type."

There was a sudden whoosh.

"Hey, what the?" Justin exclaimed. He was suddenly wearing a black cami dress instead of his normal t-shirt. Nanase's cami dress, to be precise.

Sarah, sitting next to Nanase, also noticed that Nanase was wearing Justin's t-shirt.

"Clothes switch magic?"

"Crap. Yes. Sorry Justin."

"He kinda pulls it off," Ellen said.

"Well, it's just as well Justin's top is way too big for Nanase," Sarah giggled. "Seeing as Justin's still got his pants on."

"I hope you're not going to stretch that top, Nanase. It's my favourite one."

"My boobs are not THAT big, Justin!"

At that moment Tedd looked up from his game.

"Hey, why are there two Justins and where has Elliot gone?"

"Are you KIDDING me?!" Elliot exclaimed, looking down at his newly grown chest, in a voice that everyone usually associated with Ellen. "A build-up again?"

"Oh wow, I hadn't seen you change," Ashley breathed. "I wish I'd been watching you rather than Ellen."

Sarah could tell Ashley was turned on; she had very similar mannerisms to Tess when she was aroused. She was blushing, averting her eyes, her hands subconsciously stroking her sides... Elliot of course seemed oblivious, just like he'd been when Sarah herself had hit on him while they were dating. The dolt.

"If you like seeing transformations so much I could always beam attack you," Ellen offered with Justin's smile.

Ashley whimpered, looking embarrassed. Ah, so it's not just me who's noticed, Sarah thought to herself.

"Don't you dare V5 my girlfriend!"

Ellen held her hands out. "I wouldn't dream--"

But as she was performing that gesture, a green beam of energy shot from each of Ellen's hands. The first bounced off a glass cabinet and into some crates but the second hit Ashley square in the chest.

"Ellen!"

Ashley cried out in surprise as the beam struck her. Her height didn't change much, from her seated position at any rate, but her ponytail thickened and lengthened and her top tightened as her breasts expanded to match the size of Ellen's -- or, rather right now, Elliot's.

Her face had become ever more flushed and she dipped her head as her body tensed up and began to shake. She let out a couple of short, stifled cries.

"Ashley, are you okay?" Elliot looked, at her worried.

"I... need the bathroom!" she squeaked, standing up abruptly and running up the stairs.

"I better go find out what's wrong," Elliot rose from his seat.

"Seriously?!" every woman in the room exclaimed in unison.

"Huh?" Elliot looked puzzled, then ran off after his girlfriend. The basement door slammed shut after him.

Each one of the remaining people in the room continued to gawp, looking around at the others, wondering who should break the silence.

"Wow," Susan volunteered, still standing at the head of the table. "That's some transformation fetish."

"Susan!" Sarah exclaimed, surprised at her friend's bluntness.

"Ellen, what were you thinking?!" Nanase yelled across the table.

"I didn't do it on purpose," Ellen said, her usual good humour replaced with bewilderment. "I'm sorry. I'm really on a hair trigger tonight."

"Oh, s**t."

Everyone looked at Tedd's direction. He'd stood up and now walked across the room to a cabinet in the corner.

"Sarah... where did you put the sodas we tidied away after that... incident last week?"

"Oh, crap," Sarah suddenly had a sinking feeling. " _Those_ were contaminated too?"

"Grace and I realised after you'd gone. I kept them since ... never mind! Where did you put them?"

"I took them upstairs before the party. I put them back with the others."

"Okay, everyone stop drinking the sodas, right now!"

"Care to let us in on this?" Susan glowered.

"We were trying to come up with a formula to help control out-of-control magic," Tedd cringed. "You know, to help Elliot out with his build-ups. But the batch last week managed to invert itself and... well, it went everywhere. I got some on me and I found it was enhancing my magic rather than repressing it..."

"So we've been drinking magic exaggerator?"

"We think it also lowers inhibitions..." Sarah squeaked, blushing.

*HAMMER THWACK*

"Ow!" Tedd rubbed his head. "Well, I guess I deserved that."

"And to think Ashley had been holding out to see that," Sarah muttered.

"Someone should go tell Elliot and Ashley what's going on," Nanase suggeted.

The world abruptly stopped for Sarah. [Oh jeez, not again], she thought. [Well, I might as well go check on Elliot while I have a moment.]

Sarah got up from her chair and walked around the table of her friends frozen in time. It was so weird seeing them like wax figures. Especially the two Justins. Which of them was which, anyway? They--

Sarah felt a whoosh and her perspective changed. She was suddenly looking across the table at several empty chairs. She looked around and realised where she was. She'd possessed Justin's body.

[Oh, well, this body will do too,] she decided, and stood up.

[Wow, Justin is tall. And _buff_...!] She ran her hands over her/Justin's chest, which was still clad inadequately in Nanase's cami. She'd never paid Justin that much attention before, him being gay, but, wow, he was yummy...

She shook her head again. Behave, Sarah!

She took Justin's body up the stairs of the basement, opening the door psychically just because it was cool to do that in the simulation rather than opening it by hand ([I would make a kick-ass Jedi]) and looked around for Ashley and Elliot.

Taking Ashley at her word that she was going to the bathroom, she levitated upstairs ( _So_ Jedi!).

On the landing were the couple, both still V5 morphed. Though frozen in time it was pretty obvious that Ashley had jumped Elliot, and pressed him against the wall. They were kissing passionately. Ashley had her hands all over Elliot's top half and her right thigh was wedged between his legs. Elliot's eyes were open and he looked entirely taken by surprised.

[Woah. Well, that's FV5 for you], Sarah thought. [Nice, Elliot. Well, I'd better get back before I invade this couple's privacy... some more... or before I start causing Justin's anatomy to respond to it...]

***

"Yeah, I'll go check on them," Ellen was saying.

"No!" Sarah called. Everyone looked at her. "I just checked, you know, using my spell. They're.... okay." She tried not to blush.

"So what can we do to fix it, Tedd?" Justin asked. He had quite a bright red aura at this point and Sarah wondered if he was going to go burst into flames like when he fought the Fire Guy. Fortunately he seemed to have more self-control than Ellen, whose hands were crackling with green and red beam energy. The occasional beam would let loose and zapp various things around the room, and fortunately none of them had hit anybody yet.

"I ... don't know," Tedd confessed, sheepishly. "Nobody absorbed as much of it last time, and it wore off quickly enough that I didn't look into any antidotes."

Everyone's powers were getting more out of control. Susan couldn't stop summoning and unsummoning objects, and Nanase was completely out of control of her hair, and occasionally another doll would pop into existence with the new hair colour. Fox was appearing and disappearing like a mirage, and clothes were being swapped almost at random, and not always with sensible counterparts.

"How ...." Sarah fought off another lapse into her simulation state. "How quickly did your changes stop last week?"

"You were there," Tedd replied defensively. "It's just as well you didn't have your time freeze spell at that point."

"I'm feeling light headed," Sarah wheezed.

"The more energy the spell needs, the faster you'll be worn out by it," Grace said. She seemed to be the only person unaffected by the exaggerator. "Come on, let's get you out of here,"

At that point one of Ellen's green beams bounced off the ceiling and hit Sarah smack on the top of the head.

"Sorry!" Ellen cried. Sarah felt her body morphing; her waist pulling in, hips out, and breasts becoming more heavy on her chest.

"I.. I need to ... " Sarah trailed off, and collapsed to the floor.

Time stopped again, and suddenly she felt better. She stood up and looked around. Her fainting had attracted everyone's attention, it seemed -- even that of some of the fairy dolls. Really everyone should be paying more attention to Ellen. She didn't even know what that red beam would do.

Well, back to reality, she supposed. She concentrated, ready to return to the mayhem in the basement.

Nothing happened. She wasn't able to break the spell.

She tried not to panic. She'd been locked in the house accidentally by her sister once. That was a bit like this? She just had to wait ... for what? Nobody was going to let her out.

Okay, think. Time was still moving in the real world, albeit at a very reduced pace. The spell would wear off on its own, especially when the soda wore off, right? Or maybe when her real life form came around from passing out?

Damn, I wish I'd practised this spell more.

Also damn, how did Ellen put up with these things on her chest all the time? They made her far more top-heavy than she'd like, and her back already hurt. And they jiggled all over the place when she moved. And the nipples were... super sensitive. Damn.

Get a grip on yourself, Sarah! You're trapped in a virtual world where you could do anything without any implications and you're thinking about sex!

I _could_ do anything without any implications, couldn't I?

She looked around the room at everyone there, all in various states of dress and undress thanks to Nanase's out-of-control clothes swapping.

So much tempation!


	4. Epilogue

Sarah blinked her eyes open. "Ughhh..." she moaned. "Please tell me I'm not in the simulation any more."

"It's okay, you're back with us," Tedd's voice said. Sarah turned her head upright and saw Tedd and Grace leaning over her, looking worried.

"We think the exaggerator has worn off now," Grace said. "Ellen stopped scattergunning the room with beam attacks about five minutes after you passed out, and the last of Nanase's fairy dolls disappeared about an hour ago. After we all got changed back everyone decided it would be best to go home, after Grace and I reassured them we could take care of you, of course."

"Oh!" Grace exclaimed. "I'll SMS everyone to let them know you're okay." She pulled out her phone.

"Were you in the simulation for long?" Tedd asked.

Sarah looked at him, and blushed. "Uh, about two days in the end, I think."

"Gosh!" Grace exclaimed, looking up. "What did you do for two days?"

Sarah blushed again. "Nothing!" she said hastily. "Well, not to begin with! Then I went exploring to see what distance the simulation lasted for." She paused, feeling guilty. "Uh, I'm sorry about moving the sodas. I didn't--"

"Shhhh, it's nobody's fault," Grace said, putting her phone away and stroking Sarah's hair. "Just a mix-up."

Sarah sat up. She was on the sofa in the basement. "Quite a mix-up. Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, everyone's back to normal," Grace replied. "Ashley and Elliot came back and Ellen sorted out everyone she'd accidentally zapped. Ashley looked pretty embarrassed, until Nanase told her that her... side effects... were pretty common when first being V5'ed."

"Pretty smart," Tedd agreed. "Uh, for my cousin, that is."

"I think now she feels like she's been properly initiated into the group."

"Look, uh," Tedd said guiltily, rubbing his left shoulder. "I'm sorry I accused you of cheating earlier. Ashley was staring at me after I first accidentally transformed and that... aspect of me... it's not something I usually share with people so soon after meeting them. I was just feeling the heat and trying to throw people's attention elsewhere.

"Oh Tedd," Sarah grabbed Tedd and pulled him in for a tight hug. "You're so adorable. I know you don't think I'm a cheater. Don't worry about it. Oh, hi Grace!"

Grace had joined in the hug. "Sarah sandwich!"

"And I'm sorry I got you hammered." Sarah whispered into Tedd's ear.

"'Sokay," Tedd whispered back.

The three of them stayed in each other's arms for several more moments, enjoying their close friendship. Eventually something occurred to Sarah.

"Just one last question."

"Yes?"

"Ellen _was_ the second mafioso, right?"

Grace laughed. "Yes. I think it's fair to say the civilians won the game."

"Phew," Sarah sighed happily. "Another victory for good over evil."


End file.
